The No. 24 Virginia women's basketball team had a productive Spring Break, going 2-1 and reaching the semifinals of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. The Cavaliers registered consecutive victories against Georgia Tech in their last regular season and first postseason games before falling to No. 2 North Carolina Saturday afternoon.
Virginia (23-9, 10-4 ACC) closed out its regular season in entertaining fashion last Sunday, defeating Georgia Tech 103-101 in double overtime. Despite a 15-point halftime deficit, the Cavaliers battled back to ensure senior point guard and captain Sharneé Zoll's final experience in John Paul Jones Arena would not be spoiled.
Junior forward Lyndra Littles and sophomore guard Monica Wright each posted career highs, with Littles netting 31 points and Wright adding 28.
Five days after the teams' high-scoring affair, Virginia and Georgia Tech (22-9, 7-7 ACC) met again, this time in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. The game took on a much different look than the previous matchup, with Virginia winning 52-43.
"It was a very highly contested, physical, defensive oriented game," coach Debbie Ryan said. "Both of our teams are very defensively oriented, and our last game was the opposite of the way we normally play. Today, I knew that both teams would adjust to get back into their normal flows."
The game was tight throughout, but a 12-2 Virginia run to close the game proved to be the difference. During that stretch, Virginia tightened up its defense, leading to easy buckets on the other end.
"Our transition game is built off our defense," Zoll said. "We have to defend ... and rebound in order to get our running start. So that is what we focused on and we wanted to run them and get them tired."
Once again, Littles and Wright led the Cavalier effort. Littles registered a double-double with 15 points and 16 rebounds, while Wright had a team-high 17 points.
Virginia's run in the tournament came to an end Saturday as top-seeded North Carolina proved to be too much. After the Tar Heels ended the first half on a 7-1 run to take a 40-31 halftime advantage, North Carolina would keep Virginia at an arm's length for the duration of the second half to take the victory 80-65.
The Cavaliers battled but were plagued by 26 turnovers.
"In the first and second half, there were a couple spurts where we had three or four turnovers in a row," Zoll said. "We got the stops we needed to get and we turned the ball over because we were playing too fast in the offensive end."
Despite not taking a shot until the 10:53 mark, Wright once again set a new career-high for points with 31 against North Carolina on 13-of-20 shooting. With Virginia trailing 17-9, Wright went on to score 16 points in 11 minutes to keep the Cavaliers in the game. The second-team All-ACC selection averaged 25.3 points per game during the break.
"I was pretty out of sync starting off the game," Wright said. "But coach [Ryan] talked to me. She just said to slow down a little bit, take your time, it'll come to you. As soon as I got back in, I was more relaxed. I was able to get into a rhythm."
With its regular season completed, Virginia will likely get an NCAA Tournament bid next Monday for the first time since the 2004-05 season, but Ryan and the Cavaliers will have to wait and see.
"I think it's great that you think you have that in your back pocket, but that is not a guarantee," Ryan said. "You have to be selected by the NCAA, and we feel strongly we will be. But I am not really focused on that yet"
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